Chinese procuratorates filed 27,327 graft cases and investigated 32,162 government officials for corruption during the first 11 months of 2005.

The figure was released by a senior official of the anti-corruption bureau of the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Wednesday at an on-going national anti-corruption meeting.

He also disclosed that of the 32,162 officials under investigation, 23,199 had been prosecuted and 18,755 sentenced by courts.

"Corruption is still rampant in certain areas of the country. And the fight against corruption is still tough," said the official.

He said that procurators will in future make big efforts to investigate major corruption cases which involve large sums of illicit money or ranking officials.

Procurators will tighten supervision over officials who exercise power in personnel affairs, judicial affairs or administrative approval, and officials who work in the finance, land management, coal mine exploitation and government procurement sectors.

Corruption cases, for example in state-owned enterprises, land seizure or coal mine development, were a severe infringement on the public interest and should be vigorously combated.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2006)